{
  "id": 4955053,
  "title": "USPTO trademark data is free and painful — we are demand-testing a watch API before building it",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/01/uspto-trademark-data-is-free-and-painful-we-are-demand-testing-a",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-09-01T22:07:47.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Dev.to",
    "slug": "dev-to",
    "url": "https://dev.to/estrechoia/uspto-trademark-data-is-free-and-painful-we-are-demand-testing-a-watch-api-before-building-it-4bne"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) makes trademark data freely available through its Trademark Status & Document Retrieval (TSDR) system and Open Data Portal. However, this data is difficult to work with due to its scattered nature, XML format, lack of notifications, and rate limits. Trademark attorneys and brand teams often hire staff to monitor these documents, while others manually track changes using spreadsheets and calendar reminders. To address this issue, a startup is testing a developer-friendly API called MarkWatch. This API would allow users to look up trademark status using serial numbers, registration numbers, or owners, receive alerts when status changes, and define watch lists for specific marks, owners, or classes. The startup plans to offer a free tier with 250 lookups per month, a Starter plan at $19 per month for 5,000 lookups, 10 watched marks, and email alerts, and a Pro plan at $49 per month for 50,000 lookups, 100 watched marks, webhooks, bulk exports, and webhooks. The service will initially be available for free with a waitlist to gauge interest, and users can specify the plan they would choose without providing payment information. The startup is an independent small operator and does not have an enterprise sales team. If the demand test fails, they will openly state that they will not build the product.",
  "summary": "USPTO trademark data is free and public . That is exactly the problem. I have spent the last few weeks working with public government data (before that: SEC filings, which have the same disease). Trademark data from the USPTO — the Trademark Status & Document Retrieval (TSDR) system and the Open Data Portal — is complete, authoritative and free. It is also scattered, rate-limited, XML-heavy, and…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}